Real Madrid 2-1 Sporting Lisbon Highlights (Benzema scores late in second half to end Sporting’s resilience)

Real Madrid took Sporing Lisbon in the Champions League 2016-17 group stage game and they booked their place in the knockout stages with a win. Zidane started with strong lineup as Ronaldo played upfront against his very first professional club. Sporting enjoyed success in the opening exchanges but it was Real Madrid who scored in just 30th minute of the game when Rafael Verane scored to put Madrid’s noses ahead.

Match Highlights (English)

Sporting Lisbon 1-1 Real Madrid Highlights
[ UEFA Champions League 2016-17 ]
29′ 0 – 1 Raphael Varane put Madrid in lead at the stroke of half hour mark. Zidane’s started with strong lineup and the moved paid off as Madrid controlled the game for most part.
80′ 1 – 1 Adrien Silva scores with 10 minutes left on the clock to make things interesting
87′ 1 – 2 Karim Benzema

Real Madrid has made a perfect start to their league campaign winning all three of their opening games and will be favourite to get a positive result against Lisbon who themselves has a 100% record so far in the Portugese league winning all of their four games so far. On paper, Real Madrid should comfortably win this game and with Ronaldo back in the lineup it will only make things interesting.

Team News & Lineups: Real Madrid are of course the most successful team in Europe having won 11 European titles and hunting for their 12th had a quite summer transfer window and not much changed in the squad. Which goes to show, Zidane is happy with what he has at his hands. Zidane is likely to stick which is trusted 4-3-3 system with Ronaldo, Benzema and Bale playing upfront while the trip of Casemiro, Modric and Kroos playing through the middle.

Sporting Lisbon on the other hand likes to play attacking football with traditional 4-4-2 system and we can expect them to use it on wednesday night. This is how I expect both teams to lineup.

Match Predictions: Real Madrid should be heavy favourites playing at home against a team they should easily get a result. I am going with a comfortable 3-1 win for Real Madrid in this one. No disrespect to Sporting they are a decent side and might cause some problems for Real Madrid but enough to get anything out of this match.

Real Madrid took on Sporting Lisbon in the UEFA Champions League opening matchday game at the Santiago Bernabue on Wednesday night and it turned out to be a wonderful game of football. Madrid started with Ronaldo, Benzema and Bale upfront but Sporting CP defending in numbers and frustrated Madrid for most of the first half. To surprise of home fans, Sporting Lisbon took the lead through Bruno Cesar who scored just after the break to make it 1-0 for Sporing. The game however was far from over as Madrid went into the full attacking mode.